A Saltash woman is fighting for her life after falling ill shortly after catching a cold while on holiday.

Louise Hutchings, 47, thought she was just suffering from a cold when she started to feel under the weather while in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

But she later collapsed on the beach, and is now in intensive care in a medically-induced coma.

Now her mum, 70-year-old Carol Temme, is trying to raise the cash she needs to pay for a 10-hour flight to Mexico in order to be by her daughter's side as she battles the illness which has cost her 'half her lung'.

Carol told The Herald: “As far as I know she enjoyed three days out there on the beach but caught a cold and collapsed.

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Carol added: “They’ve had to take half her lung away because as they tried to inflate them to get her to breathe, bubbles were forming and the tear was just getting bigger. And they also found out that she was anaemic because she started to bleed from the inside."

Louise on her wedding day with her sons

Doctors told Carol that her daughter, a former hairdresser from Saltash, might not survive the flight home if she was moved to a hospital in the UK.

As a result she remains in Mexico, two weeks after she was supposed to fly home.

Carol with daughter Louise on her wedding day

Carol has been relying on infrequent messages form Louise's husband Bob and her son Dale who flew from his role in the Royal Navy to be there.

She has been able to speak to the medical director of the Amerimed Hospital a number of times about her daughter's condition but says her only comfort will be to fly to her.

But unfortunately Carol is having difficulty raising funds to cover the necessary costs of the flight, accommodation, insurance and daily living costs involved with an unexpected trip.

Carol said: "I’m devastated, I’ve barely slept since finding out. It’s a tragedy really. Myself and my son just want to go out and be with her but I don't like asking for money.

“I’m disabled and I’ve recently had cancer but I’ve been given the all clear by my doctor to go out there so we just need even a little bit of money to help us get there."